June 20, 2008: A report by Local 804 members reveals that the union’s health fund lost nearly $18 million from 2003 to 2007. During that time, the fund lost 55 percent of its assets. Local officials diverted millions of dollars to the local’s pension plan and hiked members’ co-pays.

Now members are asking what the new contract will mean for the health fund and their benefits.

This crisis in the health fund was brought to light by Local 804 Members United, a network of UPS Teamsters in the New York local who work together to defend their contract and benefits.

Local 804 members reviewed the fund’s financial documents through 2007—the most recent year that the plan’s financial records are publicly available. The fund’s own records revealed that the money allocated under the 2002 UPS contract was not enough to cover members’ healthcare costs. For years, the fund spent down its reserves to make up for the shortfall.

With the health fund already in trouble and losses topping $6 million, Local 804 officials voted with UPS to cut the company’s contributions to the fund. Over the next year, UPS’s healthcare payments were reduced and millions were diverted from the health fund to the pension fund.

Starved for contributions, the health fund lost a whopping $11.3 million in two years. Local 804 members were never told a word.

“It’s totally irresponsible how they let these reserves disappear,” said Pete Mastrandrea, a Local 804 feeder driver. “It’s inexcusable how they’ve managed these funds and they need to answer to the membership for it.”

Information Brownout

By June 2007, the Local 804 Health Fund had lost nearly $18 million and negotiations on a new UPS contract were underway.

The negotiations gave the union the opportunity to make UPS pony up the money the health fund would need to protect members’ benefits and beef up the fund’s depleted reserves.

Local 804 officials voted with UPS to hike members’ co-pays while the new contract was still being negotiated.

“It’s unprecedented to make givebacks like that in the middle of bargaining,” Mastrandrea said.

When the contract came to a vote, Local 804 members showed they were ready to take on the company to defend their benefits. Members mobilized to reject the company’s first contract offer over the objections of both management and the local executive board.

As a result, members won a better deal that included record pension money. But unaware of the extent of the damage to the Health Fund, members approved a new contract that included just a 30¢ an hour increase into the medical plan in the first year.

It remains to be seen if that will be enough to rebuild the depleted fund without raising the healthcare costs of Local 804 members or retirees—or dipping into contributions that are supposed to go into the Local 804 pension fund.

“When Local 804 members turned down the contract by three to one, that gave our negotiators leverage to make UPS put the money on the table to protect our benefits,” said steward Tim Sylvester. “Our pension fund has sunk into Endangered Status and our Health Fund has lost $18 million on this Executive Board’s watch. There is no excuse if they settled short in bargaining and failed to get what they need to rebuild our benefit funds.”

June 20, 2008: A pension attorney representing Local 804 members has warned trustees at the Local 804 Pension Fund that they are in violation of federal law for refusing to comply with members’ requests for pension information.

Under the Pension Protection Act, members have the right to more financial and actuarial information from our funds—thanks to a successful lobbying effort by Teamsters for a Democratic Union and the Pension Rights Center.

Local 804 members Bill Reynolds and Tim Sylvester have been waiting to receive the information they requested since Jan. 22. But the Fund has yet to turn over the documents or even respond to their attorney. Under the law, the Fund has 30 days to comply with their request.

The Central States Fund, the Western Conference Fund, the Upstate New York Fund, and other Teamster pension funds have all promptly complied with information requests under the Pension Protection Act.

Under the law, courts can and will assess penalties against a fund that fails to respond to members’ legitimate requests for information.

The pension fund, covering 4,000 full-time UPS Teamsters in metro New York, was rocked by a 30 percent pension cut in 2006. The pension issue led Local 804 members to reject the UPS contract last year and win a better offer that restored their pension to pre-cut levels and stopped company and union officials from eliminating 25-and-out pensions for new employees.

Trustees recently notified members that the fund is in the Yellow Zone. They have said no additional pension cuts will be necessary but have provided no information about when benefits might be improved.

Most other UPS Teamsters will get an automatic increase in their pension accrual every year during the current contract. But the accrual in Local 804 will remain frozen at the 2002 level until the trustees vote to increase it.

“Local 804 members were kept in the dark about our pension and the results were not good. Now we want to see the numbers for ourselves,” said Bill Reynolds. “Will members really have to take our own Fund to court to get the pension information we’re entitled to?”

June 20, 2008: The Hoffa administration has targeted Santa Rosa, Calif. Local 624 for a potential trusteeship. A trusteeship hearing was held on June 3 on charges of financial misconduct. But some Teamsters are asking if the real goal of a trusteeship is a forced merger of Local 624.

Former Secretary-Treasurer Bob Carr resigned after it came to light that his daughter, a clerical employee at the local, embezzled more than $8,000 in union funds to pay off personal credit card debt. The misappropriated funds were paid back to the local.

The trusteeship hearing focused on this issue as well as allegations that local union officials regularly used the union credit card to pay for lunches that were unrelated to union business and that clerical employees claimed excessive overtime.

Local 624 officers say that the meal expenses were for union business and the current Executive Board played no role in misuse of the union’s funds.

Merger Target

Local 624 has been the target of a proposed merger with Local 315 in Martinez, Calif. and Local 490 in Vallejo, Calif.

Local 624 officers rejected the proposal. That’s when International Rep Steve Mack threatened Local 624 with trusteeship.

The three-way merger between locals 624, 315, and 490 is one of several mergers that have been promoted in Northern California by Mack and other Hoffa administration regional power brokers.

Mack’s own local recently merged with Local 853 which is headed by his brother-in-law Rome Aloise. The locals had already been through a combined 15 mergers! The new Local 853 now has 12,000 members spread out over a large stretch of Northern California.

Many members and officers have expressed concern over this trend toward mega-mergers and what they mean for local union autonomy and the ability of working Teamsters to meaningfully participate in their locals.

Fighting Corruption, Protecting Democracy

Teamsters for a Democratic Union championed the right of members to vote on local union mergers—and we won that right at the 2001 Teamster Convention.

The Teamster Constitution states that before a local union can be merged, the merger must be approved by a vote of both the local union executive board and the membership of the local union to be merged (Article IX, Section 11).

The Hoffa administration needs to respect this right at Local 624—and beyond.

The financial improprieties at Local 624 need to be cleaned up and prevented from ever reoccurring. The local’s treasury belongs to the membership. It’s not a piggy bank for local officials or union staff.

But a corruption clean-up will not have credibility if it is seen as a cover for forcing through an unpopular local union merger.

Local 624 members need to hold Hoffa accountable to the Teamster Constitution and make sure that with or without trusteeship, there will be no merger of their local union without a vote of the membership.

June 17, 2008: International Brotherhood of Teamsters General President James P. Hoffa has placed Chicago-based Local 714 under the control of a trustee, alleging that local leaders maintain contact with barred individuals and operate nepotistic work assignment systems, IBT officials said June 16.

Hoffa's action comes nearly 10 months after the Independent Review Board, the court-supervised panel charged with drumming corruption out of the Teamsters, suggested similar action with respect to Local 714 (211 DLR A-8, 11/1/07). Hoffa declined to place the local under the control of a trustee immediately, choosing instead to appoint a "personal representative" to address problems highlighted by the IRB.

But in a June 9 letter to members of Local 714, Hoffa said his personal representative had been unable to implement several critical reforms. Without an immediate trusteeship, Hoffa said associations between key local officials and a permanently barred ex-Teamsters official likely would continue and members participating in one of the local's health funds could suffer "irreparable harm."

"It became very clear that this situation was not going to change so he decided to implement an immediate trusteeship," Teamsters spokesman Leigh Strope told BNA June 16. "President Hoffa had given the local reasonable opportunities to work with his representative before taking this action."

Hoffa appointed Terry Hancock, president of Local 731, as temporary trustee. In addition, he appointed Brian Rainville, Becky Strzechowski, and Thomas Stiede as temporary assistant trustees. Hoffa also announced that he would hold hearings to determine whether the trusteeship should be extended or dissolved.

With more than 10,000 members, Local 714 represents workers in the metal industry, pharmacists, and deputies in the Office of the Cook County Sheriff. Until recently, the local also represented workers in the movie and trade show industries. Local 714 previously was placed under the control of a trustee. In 1996, former Teamsters president Ron Carey imposed a trusteeship that ran through 1998.

John J. Cronin Jr., chief administrator of the IRB, expressed support for Hoffa's decision. Cronin told BNA June 16 the trusteeship demonstrates the union's commitment to comply with the 1989 consent decree that established federal oversight of the Teamsters.

Continuing Contacts With Banned Ex-President

In his letter, Hoffa noted that the IRB recommended a trusteeship for Local 714 on Aug. 30, 2007. At that time the board pointed to continued local contacts with William Hogan, who served as president of the local in the early 1990s but was removed during the 1996 trusteeship. William Hogan, who at one time ran for secretary-treasurer of the international union on the same ticket as Hoffa, eventually was banned from the union entirely by the IRB. That ban was upheld in federal court five years ago (167 DLR A-6, 8/28/03).

The IRB expressed concerns that Robert "Bobby" Hogan, Local 714's principal officer and William Hogan's son, and James Hogan, Local 714's president and William Hogan's brother, had jeopardized the interests of the local by hiring Robert Riley as business agent and director of organizing. The IRB faulted Bobby Hogan and William Hogan for failing to monitor and discipline Riley, who had continuous business contact with William Hogan. Riley has been a close personal friend of William Hogan for more than 50 years.

The IRB's Cronin noted that Bobby Hogan currently faces disciplinary charges relating to his failure to monitor, investigate, and prevent contact between his father and Riley. Hoffa imposed a six-month suspension on Bobby Hogan on Dec. 13, 2007. The IRB rejected the suspension as "inadequate" and took up its own review of Bobby Hogan. Cronin said the Bobby Hogan case has been fully briefed and is now in the hands of the three-person board. He declined to predict a timeline for a decision in the matter.

"The decision is with the board members, but there is a lot of material to go through as you can imagine," he said.

The IRB also accused Local 714 of failing to perform its duty as the bargaining agent for Teamsters working at five metal companies. Hoffa noted that the IRB had found that substantial bargaining unit work was being done by temporary and nonunion workers "in circumstances which suggested corrupt dealings with these companies."

Charges of Favoritism, Nepotism

Finally the IRB faulted Local 714 for fostering "favoritism and nepotism" within its lucrative trade show and movie sector. Robert Hogan and James Hogan were specifically accused of operating a referral system designed to benefit friends and members of their extended family. This type of chronic nepotism was also a key factor in the 1996 trusteeship.

In his letter, Hoffa said his representative continues to see problems at Local 714 on all three issues. Hoffa specifically noted that certain officers and employees of the local continue to have contact with William Hogan and Bobby Hogan. Contact with Bobby Hogan is currently inappropriate in light of his six-month suspension from the union.

Hoffa noted that his representative had attempted to move jurisdiction for the movie and trade show sector to Local 727 in an effort to curtail the nepotism problems cited by the IRB. However, he said Local 714's officers and employees have worked to undermine that effort and actually "sought to hold hostage certain assets of the Local 714 health fund" which were being shifted to the Local 727 health fund. Hoffa said the movie and trade show workers health benefits would be in danger of "irreparable harm" without the emergency trusteeship.

BNA was unable to reach Bobby Hogan or William Hogan for comment on the trusteeship.

Video Reveals Hogan Family's Views

However the Web site Teamsterinjustice.com, which focuses on William Hogan's views on the Teamsters, castigates efforts by the IRB and the Teamsters to reform Local 714.

In a brief video, Bobby Hogan complains that he is being disciplined by the IRB for failing to fire his father's best friend of 55 years. He calls the IRB's processes an abuse of free speech and an effort to undermine the rights of working people. William Hogan's wife Ginny Hogan also offers a tearful defense of her son following an IRB hearing in May.

"Now they're picking on my Bobby for no reason whatsoever," Ginny Hogan said. "Bob Riley has been my friend for 50 years too. Isn't he allowed to call us? I don't understand this. Where is our freedom of speech?"

The Hogan family's video can be viewed at http://teamsterinjustice.com/2008/05/09/movie/.

By Michael Bologna

June 13, 2008: For the second time, Teamsters union officials have taken Local 714 out of the hands of a member of the Hogan family.

Saying the heads of the influential 10,000-member organization had rebuffed efforts of an official sent to work with them in September, Teamsters Union President James P. Hoffa this week imposed an emergency trusteeship over the local.

Click here to read more at chicagotribune.com.

June 12, 2008: On June 9 the International Union finally followed the recommendation of the Independent Review Board (IRB) and placed Chicago Local 714 into trusteeship.

The letter from James Hoffa lists a number of reasons, including job favoritism for the Hogan family, refusal to transfer assets that belong to trade show members to their new local, continued contact with banned members Billy and Robert Hogan, and refusing to cooperate in the monitoring of the local’s finances.

The letter also notes that Billy Hogan, the former head of Joint Council 25 and former running mate of James Hoffa, suddenly appeared as an employer representative to bargain a contract with Local 727.

The IRB banned Billy Hogan from Teamsters after he attempted to impose a sweetheart contract on Las Vegas trade show Teamsters, at a company partially owned by a member of Hogan’s family.

The IRB recommended a trusteeship in August 2007, but Hoffa has avoided that step for the past ten months. Instead, in April the Joint Council transferred the Trade Show and Movie Teamsters to Local 727, headed by Joint Council 25 president John Coli.

Terry Hancock has been appointed the trustee. Hancock is the president of Local 731 and also draws salaries from Joint Council 25 and the International.

The local was placed into trusteeship in 1996 by Teamster president Ron Carey, for many of the same reasons. However, the Hogan family regained power afterward, when members failed to build a strong enough movement to defeat the Hogan machine in the subsequent election.

It will be up to members to avoid repeating that history.

May 6, 2008: Complaints of union collusion to hire nonunion convention labor spur revolt, the Las Vegas Sun reports.

Members of Teamsters Local 631 complain their union is colluding with major convention center contractors to wean them of union labor, a suspicion that has spurred efforts to replace local Teamster leadership with a slate of insurgent candidates.

Among the members’ complaints: that the union is reducing their work hours — and then helping contractors hire cheaper, nonunion laborers whose work can be billed at union-wage prices to convention exhibitors.

In essence, members say the union has set up a lucrative nonunion employment agency within the union hall, at the expense of members whose hours are being cut. They complain that as they wait for work, the union hall dispatcher gives the jobs to nonunion workers who have paid $60 to be on the union work list.

In exchange for getting sweetheart deals from the union, the convention contractors are performing favors for union leadership, including providing work for family members, according to some union members.

Click hereto read more at The Las Vegas Sun.

May 1, 2008: Local 804 has a proud history as one of the most powerful locals in our union. Local 804 members were pioneers in the fight for strong Teamster pensions—winning 25 & Out pensions before the rest of the country. The Local 804 supplement is one of the strongest at UPS.

“Brown can’t move a package in New York City without a Local 804 Teamster. That gives us power, and our local used to use it to win top contracts and pensions,” says Tim Sylvester, a 29-year Teamster and Local 804 shop steward in Queens.

“Local 804 members used to feel that power,” Sylvester said. “We want to bring the pride and the power back.”

Local 804 has faced a series of setbacks since the historic UPS strike.

The local’s legendary president Ron Carey, the first democratically-elected General President of the Teamsters, stepped down shortly after the strike after an illegal fundraising scheme by his campaign aides was revealed. Carey was later barred from the union even though he was found not guilty in court of any role in the scandal.

After Carey’s removal, Local 804 officers threw their allegiance behind Hoffa and have gone along with his closed-door bargaining style.

“That was a big blow,” said Pete Mastrandrea, a feeder driver and 33-year Teamster. “Local 804 had always been about standing up. But our Executive Board started to take the path of least resistance.”

Pension Cuts, Concessions

“We went from a local where information was power to members basically being kept in the dark,” said Jim Reynolds, an alternate steward.

In November 2006, members were completely blindsided when the Local 804 Pension Fund announced a 30 percent cut in pension accruals. One year later, Local 804 officials negotiated a concessionary contract with UPS.

“That’s when it really hit the fan,” Reynolds said. He and other Teamsters started holding meetings of concerned members from across the local. They launched a Vote No campaign and helped defeat the contract by a three to one vote.

Local 804 negotiators and UPS were forced to return to the bargaining table. UPS agreed to reverse the 2006 pension cuts, and took other concessions off the table, including its demand to eliminate 25 & Out pensions for new Teamsters.

Bylaws Campaign

After the contract vote, leaders of the Vote No campaign got together to propose positive changes.

“We wanted to get to the root of the problem, one of which is the lack of information members were getting from our union,” Reynolds said.

Volunteers circulated petitions to change the Local 804 bylaws to require officers to keep members informed during bargaining and to report on the pension and welfare funds at every membership meeting. Two thousand members signed each petition.

Last month, the bylaw changes were approved by more than 90 percent. Even Local 804 president Howard Redmond endorsed the proposals.

“After such an overwhelming number of members signed, the changes were pretty impossible to oppose,” said Mark Cohen, a package car driver from Brooklyn.

“There’s a lot of frustration. Not everybody is ready to take the next step and get involved. But more and more people are saying things have got to change,” said Cohen.

“The good thing about the petition was that members got over the fear of putting their name on something, the fear that if you speak out then somehow you’re going against the union. We’re behind our union and we want to make it better.”

Pension Watchdogs

Local 804 members once enjoyed the best pensions at UPS. But not anymore. Many UPS Teamsters now have superior pensions, especially for 30 & Out. Most UPSers will see their pension accrual climb over the life of this contract. The 804 pension accrual is frozen at the 2002 level of $144 a year.

Members are using their rights under the Pension Protection Act to request information from the pension plan to look at why the fund developed funding problems and investigate what can be done to improve benefits in the future.

“The last couple of years have been a real wake-up call as far as our pension is concerned,” said Bill Reynolds, a package car driver on Long Island and one of the members who has pressed the fund to release the documents.

“I was told by an Executive Board member that I could sleep sound at night knowing that my pension is safe—and one month later the fund announced a pension cut,” Reynolds said. “Members are realizing we have to be better informed and more vigilant about protecting our benefits.”

Other Teamster pension funds have complied with these information requests—but the Local 804 fund has refused to turn over the documents. Members are now working with TDU pension attorney Ann Curry Thompson to get the information they are entitled to.

Enforcing Rights

Local 804 members are also working together on the shop floor—where strong unionism starts.

“Management is always pushing people to work faster. I don’t like the intimidation tactics or the harassment,” said Rob Glovitz, an inside worker and steward.

“We want things to be done right—to stop supervisors from working as much as possible, to eliminate favoritism, to make people feel comfortable that they can come to work without being harassed,” said Glovitz.

“The union is about more than the union hall. We’re the union—the ones who move the packages. If we want to make things better, it’s up to us.”

Restoring the Power

“We all have a responsibility to leave our union stronger than it was when we got here. That’s what Local 804 Members United is all about,” says Tim Sylvester.

“This board takes the position that if you speak out, you’re trying to divide the union. It’s totally the opposite,” Mastrandrea says. “When members voice their opinion, it strengthens the union because we’re setting our course together. What the membership is saying now is we want to see our local stand up and take action on the problems we face.”

“You hear so many stories about how it used to be, how the company used to fear our local. I don’t see that anymore,” said Mark Cohen. “No one wants a fight at work everyday—but we do want respect. We’ve got to work together and act like a union in the center. That’s where it all starts.”

“It’s up to all of us to take the next step, to hand out information, come to a meeting, to get involved.”

May 21, 2008: School bus drivers in New York City are showing that persistence pays off—literally. Ask Juan Carlos Rodriguez, a Local 854 Teamster and member of Teamsters for a Democratic Union.

The National Labor Relations Board is demanding that Consolidated Bus Transit reinstate Rodriguez and pay him nearly $150,000 in back pay and benefits after illegally firing him.

When his rights were violated, TDU helped Rodriguez and other Local 854 Teamsters to take legal action—appealing their case all the way up to the National Labor Relations Board in Washington.

The Board overturned on appeal an earlier ruling by an NLRB administrative law judge. The Board also ruled that Local 854 President Daniel Gatto violently threatened TDU member and shop steward Jona Fleurimont.

Local 854 has now complied with the Board decision and promised to respect workers’ rights. But the company continues to dig in its heels. The case is now in the U.S. Court of Appeals.

“TDU has made it possible to stand up for our rights and defend ourselves,” Rodriguez said. “We never would have been able to come this far without having an organization behind us.”

Last month, CBT offered Rodriguez $60,000 and his job back to settle the case. Rodriguez turned down the offer.

“The company’s offer wasn’t serious. They’re making a mistake if they think they’re going to throw me a bone and have me chase it like a dog,” Rodriguez said. “It’s time for the company to show some respect for the law and for their workforce.”

May 1, 2008: John Coli, the president of the Chicago Joint Council, has finally gotten his wish: Chicago Trade Show and Movie Teamsters will transfer to his own Local 727. It’s a lucrative prize.

The trade show Teamsters have always been in Local 714, which is run by the Hogan family, who also own equipment and companies operating within the trade show industry.

Coli made the announcement of the switch at an April 29 meeting of affected members. He said the switch was to dodge a recommendation of the Independent Review Board (IRB) to trustee Local 714, where Bobby Hogan was recently ousted from the union.

Coli warmly praised Bobby Hogan. He also stated that the International Union has given its blessing for the switch.

Coli told members that their contracts, health care, and stewards would remain the same, that he would be their business rep, and that they would have the right to vote on their contract, which expires at the end of this year.

The trade and movie show division has long been a breeding ground for payoffs, nepotism and sweetheart deals. The principal officers or International officials in numerous locals have been expelled from the Teamsters over corruption in this division, including in Dallas, Miami, Orlando, Chicago, Tampa, and Las Vegas.